


Of Mortals and Men

by everydaymagic



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: Baseball, F/M, Mortality, Retirement, ice bath beauty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 03:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8562868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everydaymagic/pseuds/everydaymagic
Summary: The reality of Mike's situation is starting to sink in, and he doesn't think he likes it very much.





	

Of late, Mike Lawson has been thinking a lot about his own mortality.His baseball mortality that is, though really, without baseball, he’s not sure what his life is anyway.Once upon a time, when he was just a Rookie, and even up until a few years ago, when he was in his prime, that hadn’t bothered him. He’s closer to being over the hill now, and suddenly, his exit from the game is not so much a distant future, but a distinct possibility. But he’s been wondering lately whether retiring from baseball will leave him ten feet under what was once _his_ home plate.

Examining his life, Mike is realizing that he doesn’t have much of one outside of baseball. And that scares the heck out of him.  He’ll always love the game, but he won’t always be in it, as the events of the past few weeks have made abundantly clear. Even though Duarte isn’t taking his place as catcher just yet, Mike isn’t stupid. He knows that Duarte is here for his job.  It’s just a matter of time. How long is anybody’s guess, including Mike’s. And he doesn’t like having things up in the air. He likes to be in charge, and in control. Which means he is realizing the time is drawing near to make some hard decisions.

Mike is contemplating his mortality currently from the depths of a bone chilling ice bath. His chin rests on his arms crossed on the side of the tub. He’s so deep in thought, he doesn’t even realize Baker has entered the room, which is probably a first.

“Uh oh, you have your thinking face on,” Ginny teases. “Don’t hurt yourself.” 

“More than I already am?” Mike grimaces, shifting and focusing on her. “Anyway, doesn’t privacy go both ways, Baker? I’m kinda in the middle of something here.”

Ginny rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “Yeah, but you could be in there for hours.”

“That’s my prerogative.” 

“But I wanted to talk to you now,” Ginny pouts.

Mike tries to ignore how cute she looks when she does that. Ginny doesn’t pout for just anyone after all.  With them, she puts on a tough face, and muscles her way through to her objective.  He finds it kinda sweet that she thinks (maybe correctly) that he can be won over with a pout.

Mike waves a hand at her. “You’ve been granted an audience. Speak, Rookie.”

Ginny rolls her eyes at him and goes to lean against the wall. He’s glad she’s not peering in the tub at him, even though—as he clearly proved just a few days ago—he has nothing to hide.  Now that he’s given her permission to speak, she looks more unsure. Her hands are clasped behind her and she keeps bouncing herself, pushing off from the wall and coming to rest against it again. “I dunno, I just wanted to see how you were doing,” she says.

“Baker, I’m in an ice bath freezing my nuts off. They’ve almost shrunk to the size of a normal guy’s now. I’m doing fine or terrible.Take your pick.” 

Ginny gives him a look that says he hasn’t impressed her and he grins.  He likes that she tries to put him in his place (and sometimes succeeds). “I mean…you’ve been…quiet these past few days.”

He can see the earnest look in her eyes, the genuine concern, and he curses that their connection goes two ways. Because while Mike likes being able to tell when something is up with her, he doesn’t like having her aware of his moods.  “Haven’t you told me I talk too much at least five times in the past two weeks?” he deflects. He raises a hand to run through the beard.

“Lawson—” she starts, and he can see that despite her demeanour, she intends to continue this line of questioning.

“Baker,” he interrupts her and ignores the look she throws him. “Look, fine, we can talk about…whatever you think is going on, even though nothing is—” he talks faster, again ignoring the way she glares at him and parts her lips as if to protest “—but not here.”  Bad enough he has to talk about it at all, but he definitely doesn’t want to do it in the clubhouse. Too many eyes and ears here.

Ginny shuts her mouth and pushes off the wall, looking satisfied. “Fine. Dinner. You’re buying,” she shoots as she breezes back out the door.

Mike tries to ignore the flutter of excitement in his belly, putting it down to the juices in his stomach slowly starting to freeze.


End file.
